Underground Recap: A Major Death + Ernestine Falls Apart

Viewers are introduced to a new slave but his identify and significance are not yet revealed.

The season premiere opens up with an unidentified slave teaching himself how to read on a plantation from Kentucky.

Rosalee and Harriet Tubman are officially a team and they mean business.

Meanwhile Rosalee and another slave are running away from slave catchers in the woods. One of the slave catchers pulls a gun out on her, but Harriet Tubman draws her gun on him and tries to negotiate a price to pay to make them back off. Rosalee draws her gun and eventually the slave catchers withdraw their guns and agree to the deal.

John sets his ambitions to getting Noah released from slave jail and sent back to the south.

John is in court trying to get Noah freed and sent back to Georgia.

Rosalee is tending to injuries of the slave she just helped. John updates Rosalee on what happened in court. He tells her he thinks the judge will send Noah back to Georgia and Rosalee is relieved. However, she questions what happens if the judge doesn’t return Noah back to the south. John tells her if that happens, he will keep filing motions until they are successful.

Harriet Tubman tries to talk Rosalee out of going to get medicine for a slave and warns her that her ultimate plan of getting Noah and the rest of her family back is very dangerous.

Ernestine is not adjusting well to her new life on a different plantation.

Ernestine is on a plantation in South Carolina. She’s not adjusting to the new place well, and self medicates by getting high on a poisonous substance and sleeping with and bunking with another slave.

While working out in the swamp with the other slaves, she sees the ghost of the female slave she killed last season.

Rosalee’s medicine grab is a success.

Rosalee is in a hospital in Ohio, going by the name Mary and pretending to be the help. She is there to steal medical supplies. She is successful.

Elizabeth joins a new circle.

John’s wife Elizabeth meets Georgia and a group of women who are secretly working to help free slaves. They refer to themselves as The Sewing Circle. She’s impressed when they start pulling out guns out of secret places. These women are the real deal it seems.

Noah ruffles some feathers but gains alies. 

Noah is in slave jail and figures out that two inmates are planning to attack guards and try to escape. He ruins their plan by taking away the blunt object they were going to use before they can strike.

When they angrily confront him for ruining the plan, he tells them he did so because they were going to get caught and killed. He also reveals that he is part of the Macon Seven, and his plan to escape is much better since he has friends on the way to free him. They agree to cancel their attack and leave with Noah.

Noah isn’t so lucky and gets sentenced to death.

The judge rules against sending Noah back to Georgia because he feels Noah is a threat since he is a part of the Macon Seven. John is furious because federal law is being ignored and Noah will be hanged.

Rosalee decides to go and get Noah herself on the day he will be hanged.

“Ain’t no way to steal him til he outside them walls.” – Rosalee

John and Elizabeth agree and all three work together to develop a plan.

Elizabeth says they need to find a way to disrupt the system. So John decides to run for the open seat for Court of Commons.

Ernestine contemplates suicide.

Ernestine’s boyfriend is once again assaulted by the overseer for “talking out of turn.” He takes his frustrations out on her and hits her. She once again self medicates by inhaling an unnamed poison through her scarf. The ghost of the slave she killed appears and asks:

“Is this where you at now?”

The ghost of the slave Rosalee’s mother killed tells her to just go ahead and kill herself and stop waiting for someone else to do it.

The plan to get Noah is a failure.

When Noah is getting ready to be hanged, he hears a whistle and notices Rosalee. They nod at each other and she lights a fire which causes an explosion. During the chaos, Noah removes the noose and John comes on a horse and cart to help him escape.

Unfortunately, they are chased down and one of the guards hops on Noah’s back and drags him off the cart and he is taken away.

John meets his end.

With the attempt to free Noah being unsuccessful, John and Elizabeth go to the court to turn in his application for Court of Commons but when they walk out, John is shot in the head and killed. Elizabeth is devastated.

What are your thoughts on the episode?